ATI Graphics Problem

[driscol]

Hello, I've had this problem for a while now...I think dating back to the beginning of this year. I couldn't afford to send it in to HP due to finals and a short break.

So...a brief history:

January: ATI graphics card stopped working. Screen would turn black any time I tried switching over to this graphics card. I would have to hard shut down the computer and then select the option to revert back to last known settings.

March/April: I believe the Intel graphics controller stopped working due to bad build by HP or something of the sort. I found a temporary solution online. I had to overheat the laptop by stuffing the vents until the controller fused back to the motherboard. This wasn't supposed to be a long term fix, but the laptop has been fine since then.

June: I'm finally out of school, so I'm trying to use the ATI gpu again. This time, the screen is white when I switch the graphics. Sometimes, it's black...I don't know why.

1st try - switch from within windows -> white screen

2nd-4th tries - had to hard shutdown the laptop, screen is black when turned on; no option to revert back to former settings; safe mode works

5th try - plugged into a monitor that I have access to now -> white screen on laptop while picture shows on external monitor (makes me think that the white screen only shows when the computer+windows are working, black screen when they aren't); VERY SLOW...I think it's running off ATI gpu
- I just tried opening CCC...turned both monitors black. Apparently laptop shut down.
- When I opened task manager, it showed CPU usage at 100% for some reason.

This is a HP tm2t 1100 CTO if I remember correctly.

Thoughts? I'll check back in a few hours and try again, since I have some matters to attend to atm.

[Seketh]

Have you tried installing other driver packages?

I'm sorry, but that sounds like an hardware issue. I guess you have to send it in to HP.

[darthhen]

Dumb question: I assume you uninstall the ATI drivers, then reinstalled them right?

As a last resort before sending it back to HP, you can do a clean install or restore your TM2 to see if that helps.

[Hattori Hanzo]

You have a physical switch to switch between the graphics?
If the machine does not even show the BIOS then, it's a hardware problem for sure.

If you don't want to reinstall windows for a software based try you could also get some up to date linux live CD/DVD/USB Image and boot from that.

[driscol]

Something weird happened. The LCD is black for a few seconds after the starting windows screen and before the actual windows login screen. After logging in, the screen is black for a few minutes...I didn't turn it off this time and the desktop popped up later.

I've downloaded all the latest drivers.
Yes, I uninstalled the ATI drivers first.
There is no physical switch. I'm about to update the BIOS, but I agree there's a good chance there is a hardware problem.

I will try the linux option before clean windows install.

Thanks.

Edit: Thanks for the help. I'll be sending it in to HP. They said it's probably a problem with the ATI controller. Now the screen flickers while logging in and is much slower/hotter, so hopefully they'll fix everything.